With its whitewashed walls, luxurious garden and straw-hut-style ceilings, Café Piha looks more like a surfer hangout than a coffee roaster. That’s to be expected, given that Pierre Guérin, its well-traveled owner, discovered a passion for coffee while kitesurfing in New Zealand, stranded on Piha Beach. Back in the Northern Hemisphere, he partnered up with his girlfriend Carole Laffargue to open this coffee shop in 2016, where he serves one-of-a-kind beans that have been meticulously selected, are always organic, and get roasted in-house every week: an exclusive All Blacks blend sourced from South America (€7.50 for 250 g), beans from the tiny Hacienda Colima farm in Costa Rica with notes of citrus and almonds (€11.40 for 250 g), or even Arsosala from Ethiopia with notes of apricot and chocolate (€12.30 for 250 g). And as an added bonus, there’s always someone who will happily discuss the subtleties of each variety with you. // P.H.
Hidden gem: The Geisha de Colombie coffee, which is grown on a very small farm, with notes of melon and jasmine (€17.40 for 125 g).
